At a typical tradeshow, goods and services are advertised, and buyers of these goods and services have an opportunity to peruse the latest and greatest products from a variety of manufacturers. In order to promote such goods and services, manufacturers design and construct (or hire someone to design and construct) booths from which their representatives operate. These booths are typically made of frames constructed of wood or metal, or combinations thereof, and which may have laminated surfaces, plastic panels and paper, sheet plastic or fabric banners or other coverings upon which advertising matter is printed. Some tradeshow booths may even have a small room incorporated therein where buyers and sellers may converse in private, or where a potential buyer may arrange a private showing.
These tradeshow booths are heavy, being packed in shipping crates that weigh around 500 pounds each, and must be packed in shipping crates and shipped as freight by rail, truck or boat to an exhibition hall. As is currently the practice, an exhibitor arranges to ship or carry the display booth to the exhibit hall, where the display booth is assembled. After the tradeshow, the display booth is disassembled and packed back into its shipping crates and shipped to a place of storage, such as a warehouse, where the display booth is stored until its next use.
The cost of designing, fabricating and setting up and disassembling a conventional display booth at a tradeshow is expensive, with a typical booth costing $100,000 or more just for designing and fabricating the booth. In addition, cost of drayage and transporting and assembling the booth at the trade show may run another $30,000-40,000 or so. After the tradeshow is over, the booth must be disassembled and packed up, typically in shipping crates, and transported to a storage facility. This may cost another $20,000 or so. In addition, the cost of storage may be on the order of $0.25 per square or cubic foot per day. Where tools, such as wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers and the like are needed to assemble the booth, a state or city within which the exhibition is held typically would require that union labor be used, adding to the total cost.
“Point-of-purchase” displays may be constructed from cardboard, foam board or the like. Such displays typically are placed on countertops, although larger displays may be located on a floor surface. These displays usually will highlight or promote a product, usually held in some form of container or stacked on the display. Such displays have little structural integrity.
Yet another type of cardboard display includes cutouts or pop-up displays of famous figures that are typically used to promote a movie or product. While these may be freestanding displays, they have very little strength or structural integrity.
From the foregoing, it is apparent that there is a need for a trade show booth system that can construct a larger booth, that is easy to fabricate and transport, and which may be assembled at an exhibition hall without tools. It may also be easily packed up for transport after use, or simply discarded after removing the graphics covering. The cardboard structure can then be recycled by the convention facility, which is a standard industry process.